Hyderabad:
Accused of outraging the modesty of a research scholar at the English and Foreign Languages University on Wednesday, professor Rajat Kumar Mohanty was arrested on Thursday morning.
He was produced before court and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
Meanwhile, the university authorities have also reportedly assured students that an internal inquiry would be conducted and the professor punished if found guilty.
According to Osmania University police inspector P Ashok, Mohanty was arrested after the victim, a PhD scholar pursuing research under him accused him of outraging her modesty.
The accused is understood to have confessed to the offence. 43-year-old Mohanty has been a visiting Assistant Professor at English and Foreign Languages University for the last two years and his family reside in Bengaluru.
Prof Madhavan, English and Foreign Languages University, registrar said, "We do not want to comment on anything." The in charge Vice Chancellor, Prof R Amrithavalli is on a threeday leave and was not available for comment. However, students organisations demanded the professor be dismissed and invalidated to work anywhere in the country. They also wanted an apology from the Vice Chancellor along with assurances of no such incidents.
"We demand an unconditional apology from the Vice Chancellor and an assurance the victim will be allowed to continue her studies without being further traumatised," said Mohan Darawath and Sitaramulu, representatives of Telangana Students' Association and Dalit Adivasi Bahujan Minority Students' Association respectively.
"We have had four cases of sexual harassment since Oct 2011 and no faculty has been involved. I am sure the number is higher as lots of cases are not brought to us," said Aparna, a PhD scholar and representative of Samvad, a varsity gender forum.